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Chuck Volpe’s Napoleonic crusade to remake Lackawanna County government in his image was rejected by voters in Tuesday’s primary election. Incumbent state Rep. Kevin Haggerty, D-Full Metal Straitjacket, was discharged and The Little Jeep That Could hit the highway to Harrisburg.

The centerpiece photo on Wednesday’s front page of The Times-Tribune proved the cliche about a picture being worth a thousand words. The result the photo reflects cost Mr. Volpe hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is serious coin, even for a multimillionaire.

Commissioner Corey O’Brien’s snarky grin was captured by a camera, but it was meant for Mr. Volpe. The Paul Mitchell of local politics looked like Hairy Potter fresh from vanquishing Volpemort. Walking beside him was Commissioner Pat O’Malley, who somehow resisted the instinct to say, “Cheese!” and issue a proclamation in favor of puppies, pizza and Cub Scouts.

Commissioner Jim Wansacz was not in the picture. He laid so low this campaign season he earned a headstone. Mr. Volpe wanted to make the government change question about corruption, and Mr. Wansacz was the easiest available face to relate with Cordaro/Munchak-style politics.

Opponents of replacing the three-commissioner model with a Balkanized county executive/council system worked hard to paint Mr. Volpe as a bored oligarch ruthlessly trying to buy the government he wanted. Mr. Volpe and his acolytes unwittingly reinforced this perception at every opportunity.

“The email the Scranton Times doesn’t want you to see” is a priceless example. The Times-Tribune hesitated but eventually published a Team Volpe ad that dishonestly implied the referendum had the endorsement of U.S. Attorney Peter J. Smith.

Mr. Smith indeed wrote an email saying the structure of Lackawanna County government is vulnerable to corruption, but he never endorsed Mr. Volpe’s plan. Mr. Smith wrote a letter to the editor emphatically stating that his comments had been taken out of context and misrepresented.

When someone you portray as a political ally publicly denies he is even an acquaintance, it’s time to drop the ruse. Instead, Team Volpe doubled down. The rest is history. So are Napoleon and Chuck Volpe.

We need to talk about Kevin.

Redistricting combined parts of the 112th and 115th districts into a new 112th, which pitted Mr. Haggerty against 115th incumbent Rep. Frank Farina. Both are serving their first term. Mr. Farina will have a second act. Voters gave Mr. Haggerty the hook.

A few days before the election, Kevin had a meltdown on local radio when asked why he was discharged from the U.S. Marines. He has campaigned on his military record, but has never answered this basic question.

Failing to answer a fair question raises a red flag voters can’t ignore. A Marine never shrinks from a challenge, and an elected official who goes thermonuclear under such minimal heat is his own worst enemy. At best, Mr. Haggerty’s tantrum revealed him as wealthy in self-obsession and destitute in self-control. At worst, it sounded like a cry for professional help.

He won the Republican nomination, but Tuesday’s biggest loser was Gov. Tom Corbett, R-Drillers. York businessman Tom Wolf easily took the Democratic nomination for governor, an outcome which seemed preordained from the first in a series of superb political ads that firmly established Mr. Wolf as the smart, personable and practical antidote to the incumbent.

Unopposed but running scared, Mr. Corbett began attacking Mr. Wolf weeks before the primary. In an ad that plays like a spot for any number of “male enhancement” products, Team Corbett spoofed Mr. Wolf’s now famous Jeep Wrangler.

The Jeep idles at a red light as a Dodge Ram pickup truck pulls up with a CORBETT vanity plate on the front bumper. The rear bumper isn’t shown, because it would have Texas, Louisiana or Arkansas plates and “Drill Baby Drill” stickers.

The light changes, and the Ram roars off as the Jeep sputters and stalls. It’s a cute spot, but like the Democrats who failed to catch up, it’s easy to envision Mr. Corbett spending November on a road to nowhere, watching Mr. Wolf’s taillights fade on the horizon.

CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, got rid of his Jeep because it was always in the shop. Contact the writer: kellysworld@timesshamrock.com, @cjkink on Twitter.

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